Not Anymore
by teejei
Summary: Lex and Chloe meet up years after her and Clark's graduation from MetU. But the issue of that summer in the safehouse brings back the drama. Chlex & Chlark
1. Cafe Conversations

Pairing: Chloe/Lex, Chloe/Clark  
Spoilers: Covenant season3 finale, Crusade and Gone season4, will depend on succeeding chapters.  
Disclaimer: None are mine, though to have Lex on eternal loan would be truly appreciated.  
Summary: A few years after Chloe's graduation from MetU, Lex calls her up, inviting her for an afternoon at a cafe in Metropolis. The banter was still like old times, until Lex decided to bring up the long-buried issue of that summer in the safehouse...and then the drama unfolds again.  
A/N: A bit angsty --- so don't blame me for not warning you early on.First multi-chapter fic, so please be gentle. Always love the feedback! Ü

**Not Anymore**

**Chapter 1**: _Cafe Conversations_

"Miss Sullivan", Lex greeted politely as Chloe slipped into the empty seat at their table for two in the VIP section of a classy cafe in Metropolis.

"I use the hyphenated surname now, Mr. Luthor", countered Chloe, matching his formal greeting. "You should know that already since you were at the wedding as our best man." Chloe grins at him, quickly settling into the comfortable banter they've perfected way back in Smallville.

"Ah, yes, with the reception at the manor's garden. You were utterly beautiful and blooming that afternoon. In fact, you still are, Miss Sullivan."

"Why, thank you, Lex. You're lucky I'm letting you charm me, or else a particular eyebrow would've been already up a while ago. And it's Chloe, ok? I'm in a good mood with you, old friend, so don't spoil it." She wanted to stick her tongue out, just for the fun of it, but she resisted and upped the wattage on her grin instead.

"But 'Miss Sullivan' always brings back the best memories. Remember that summer...," Lex started to reminisce, but Chloe interrupted right away. They've had this conversation, nay, argument before, and she was not about to let an afternoon be wasted, again. The beginnings of wistful smiles vanished from their faces.

"Don't, Lex." Chloe warned.

"Don't what, Chlo'?" Lex's suddenly stiff tone is now matched with an icy glare.

A lesser man would've buckled, but Chloe took a deep breath and seemed unfazed. "Don't start. We've been through this one too many times than I could possibly bear in this lifetime. That summer is over and done with. I'm not going to hold it against you if you want to reminisce. But, please, let me not be a part of it. Just…don't." Chloe kept a straight face throughout her tirade, though she berated her voice for faltering at the last word.

Lex wasn't looking at her anymore and was fiddling the napkin on top of his plate, contemplating his next move as if the conversation was a serious chess game.

"What happened to us, Chloe?" He was still avoiding eye contact, afraid that his eyes would show his warring emotions. Lex was now looking uncharacteristically forlorn.

"You tell me, Lex. After that summer in the safe house, even after your father's trial was concluded," she sighed,"…not a peep. You were always on some expedition out of the country. Or with Clark and that Jason Teague. Lana's tattoo probably held your attention longer than I'll ever…" It was Chloe's turn to look away; she'd rather not let Lex see the tears forming in her eyes. No matter how hard she tried, jealousy and envy are two facts of life that could never be totally purged from her system.

"I'm sorry, Chloe. Please don't think like that again." Lex finally looked at her, hoping she would sense his sincerity. "I never thought you'd be jealous of the company I keep", he said, trying to bring back the banter.

Now it was Chloe's turn to put on the cool exterior. "Go home, Mr. Luthor. Your wife must be worrying herself to death. You know how _jealous_ she got when you spent the whole summer in the safe house when you were supposed to be vacationing with her in Greece for your anniversary."

"I had to make sure, dammit!" he countered, struggling to keep his voice down. "It's always been you, Chloe. Only you." he said quietly after taking a deep breath.

"No, Lex. That's not the way…" reasoned Chloe, putting her trembling hands on the table to steady them.

"My marriage to Helen was only for convenience," he continued as if he didn't hear her, "You knew that…Only _you_ knew that."

"Yes, but…" she tried to start again.

"I love _you_, Chloe. I still do." Lex reached out across their table, took her hand, and squeezed it, all the while never breaking eye contact. Chloe looked down at the hand holding hers.

_My hand. My LEFT hand. The one with my WEDDING RING!_, she thought.

A split-second after this realization, she almost jumped from her seat. Chloe jerked her hand from under Lex's grip, and in the process, the stone from her wedding ring cut into Lex's palm. It wasn't exactly shallow, but it was deep enough that it bled. Lex grabbed the table napkin and wound it around his right hand.

Her tears were now threatening to spill over her cheeks as she struggled to find her handkerchief with her blurred vision.

_My God, this is so not right! All I wanted was to catch up with an old friend. We weren't supposed to bring out skeletons from the closet! Crap. Crap. Crap!_

"Chloe. I still lo-…" Lex wanted her to hear it again, to somehow convince her of its genuineness, to let it sink in, and to make her realize her own love for him.

Chloe cut him short. "You're not supposed to love me anymore!" she croaked out. She was close to being hysterical; this definitely wasn't the way she imagined this night would end.

"**_Not anymore, Lex. No more. Never again._**" She stood up and fixed the contents of her purse. "I have to go now. I'm late for our anniversary dinner. Clark must be going mad already." Good thing Lex decided to sit facing the wall, or else the huge scowl marring his face would've given the press a field day.

Since Lex didn't bother to stand up, she stood at his side and whispered, "Goodbye…Mr. Luthor", all the while looking in the direction of the entrance of the café. Two heartbeats later, and no sound from Lex. After the first step away from the table, Chloe inwardly cringed as she heard him reply:

"Goodbye…Miss Sullivan."

Chloe sighed, _He'll never let that summer go._

tbc


	2. Bring Back the Banter

A/N:Credit to Ellidyay for Lex's nick, Xan, from her epic "Time Warp". 

Disclaimer posted with first chapter.

**Chapter 2**: _Bring Back the Banter_

_Lex POV_

_"I use the hyphenated surname now, Mr. Luthor."._

Hyphenated. Sullivan-_Kent_.

'That could change. That has **_GOT_** to change. I could do that.'

_"You should know that already since you were at the wedding as our best man."_

'Damn right I was the best man. How could I refuse my best friends?', he thought resignedly.

"You know you could refuse. They would've understood, especially Clark. That boy was so giddy; all that energy can power the plant for years. Besides, Pete was willing to fill in. You were too caught off guard to decline the martyrdom of _bestman-ship_."

Lex groaned. Now wasn't exactly the right time to let his conscience take center stage.

'Wait. I have a conscience!'

"Of course, numb-nuts! Chloe Sullivan deserves more than just to be charmed, she's to be respected, too. How could you expect to be friends with her without me?"

'She sees me for me,' he thought defensively. 'She calls me on my bullshit and was never afraid to be upfront.'

"Well, there you go! You'll thank me in the end."

'And you're starting to sound like Dad…which is really unnerving.'

"Oh, the insults I must endure! Why did I ever get assigned to a Luthor?"

'**Take me as I am, or get the hell out**,' he scathed.

"Temper, temper, Luthor. We don't want another _psychotic break_ now, do we?"

Lex decided to ignore the reference and focus on that particular time instead. 'She tried to help back then and…no. No, she only did it because of Clark. It was always Clark. Never me.'

"Sure, Lex. Keep telling yourself that crap."

'I manufacture enough crap to not think about it more than I should. If you haven't been hibernating all this time, you'd have noticed the way she looks at Clark. **First love, remember**?'

"First love, yes," his conscience conceded, "but that doesn't mean she can't love anybody else anymore. And FYI, it was your first meeting with Chloe in the Torch office that woke me up. You just never listened to me long enough."

'Alright, alright, I'm listening. Now what's your GPOA?'

"Finally he surrenders! He sees the light!"

'Don't push it, or I'll put _your_ lights out. If not for this,' Lex squeezed his right fist, the wound was still smarting, 'I'd be more patient and receptive.'

No matter how fine the table napkin's material claims itself to be, it can't compare to the softness of the back of Chloe's hand.

'Her damned wedding ring. The one I helped Clark find,' he grumbled. 'The one I would've personally chosen for her,' he added bitterly.

He sighed as he recalled that day in the jeweler's private office; the owner looked at him questioningly while he scowled as Clark stroked the rings and solemnly closed the black box. He mentally kicked himself for reaching for her left hand.

"Ow! You do realize that I absorb all the pain you feel, self-inflicted or otherwise, right?"

Lex removed the napkin from his hand and traced the wound, noting that it cut across his life AND love lines. 'I'll have this forever,' he reflected wryly and shook his head. 'You're surprisingly quiet.' He's suddenly uneasy with the voice's silence.

"Just thinking along the same _lines_ as you." He could almost feel his conscience smiling nastily.

'Right. Back to business. First of all, how do I address you? Calling you _Lex_ would make this conversation weirder, along with the fact that you already sound like my father.'

His conscience paused, and then blurted out, "What does Chloe call you back in the safe house?"

Lex was confused. 'Well, _Lex_, of course.'

"When it's just the two of you, numb-nuts! And I don't mean those times when all you talked about was evidence and testimonies."

Lex can't believe how demanding this inner voice was, but he couldn't help but smile. '**_Xan_**. Chloe used to call me Xan. She wanted a personal nick, and in return, allowed me to call her Chlo. But only when we're alone. I don't think she'll let Clark call her that.'

"Perfect! Xan it is. Now here's the plan…"

After nearly an hour later, Lex sauntered out of the café. He wanted to whoop and cheer, but knew that the gleam in his eye was enough.

* * *

_Chloe POV_

Chloe angrily wiped away the tears she allowed to flow after passing through the café's double doors. Good thing it was already dark and that she decided to forgo the mascara and eyeliner, or else she'd look worse than the mess she's in at the moment.

She skipped the waiting cabs on the curb and resolved to endure the seven blocks to the restaurant and meet up with her husband. She needed to walk off the building frustration resulting from her conversation with Lex. She'd rather not face Clark when Lex's revelation was taking up all her attention.

_"What happened to us, Chloe?"_

'**Nothing** happened, Lex. That's the problem. That's the **glitch** in this reality.'

_"I love you, Chloe. I still do."_

'How dare he bring that up! And on my anniversary, that bastard!'

"Chlo…," a faint voice in her head trying to hold back a full-blown rant. But Chloe ignores it.

'So he still loves me, huh? Did that ever cross his mind _after_ the trial? Apparently not. Does he even bother to talk or acknowledge me at the Talon? Nope, he's too busy discussing with Mrs. Kent. All he had to do was look up from the books, see me trying to catch his eye, and nod in my direction. Did he even congratulate me at the Smallville graduation? Oh, he approached me, alright, but only because I was standing next to Clark and he wanted to talk to him. A hug would've sufficed when Clark wasn't looking; **I was less than a foot away!**'

Her eyes were dry now, but she still felt the tracks the tears made on her face.

'He has absolutely no fucking right to love me anymore.'

"But you and Clark agreed to make Lex best man. Doesn't that count for anything?...And aren't being too selective with those memories?" the voice asked wryly.

'Don't you get me started on THAT. We've been through it before. I'm **OVER** him. It's **OVER** between us. It's Sullivan-**_Kent_** now. **_Sullivan-Luthor_** didn't even make it to the drawing board, so there's nothing to come back to.'

"Bitch, please," her conscience was now irritated at its owner's stubbornness. "Didn't he promise to look after you? Didn't he regularly visit MetU? Didn't he risk Helen's jealousy when he stayed the whole summer? Didn't he promise you're in this together?'

Chloe mumbled a curse. 'When would you stop!'

"C'mon Chlo," goaded the voice, dishing out Lex's personal nick, 'denial ain't just a damned river!'

'Alright, alright! Yes to all that whining! Sure, he looked **after** me. But how could I be properly thankful if he won't even look **_at_** me? Yeah, he visited MetU. But the most I got from him was "Keep it up, Miss Sullivan." Helen may have been jealous, but that couldn't count because she doesn't love him...And, yeah, maaayyybeee a lil guilty with selective memory. But who cares about it now! That also couldn't count.'

Chloe took a deep breath and continued, 'He promised we'd go through this together, but to whom does he go home to at the end of the day? Who does he keep by his side? Not me…**and stop calling me Chlo**!' The restaurant doors were only a few steps away.

"Xan still loves you, Chlo" said the voice timidly.

Chloe inwardly cringed for the second time that day as she passed through another set of double doors.

* * *

---GPOA – general plan of action. Ü

tbc


End file.
